Colin Leonard is on a roll and enjoying his time in the spotlight alongside celebrity musicians and performers like Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny.
Leonard, a native of the Auburn area, claimed his third Grammy Award in Las Vegas on Nov. 13 at the Latin Grammy Awards. He was honored for his work as mastering engineer on Bad Bunny’s Album of the Year, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which in English means “I Should Have Taken More Photos.”
He’s been working with Bad Bunny since 2017. “We’ve been working together for a long time,” Leonard said last week. “When I first started working with him, you know, he was not very well known. His career has exploded, and his popularity as well, so it’s been awesome working with him.”
The win continues a hot streak for Leonard.
In February, he received a Grammy for master engineering Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” which won Album of the Year, and the year before he won Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for “Jaguar II” by Victoria Monét.
Bad Bunny is also nominated for Album of the Year for the 2026 Grammy Awards, which will be announced Feb. 1. Other nominees in the same category include Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Clipse, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Leon Thomas, and Tyler, The Creator.
It doesn’t end there — Bad Bunny is also the headline performer at next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, which has raised some controversy, partly because Bad Bunny sings exclusively in Spanish.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny speaks fluent English and has hosted Saturday Night Live twice and appeared other times as a guest artist, but said he is more comfortable speaking in his native Spanish.
But language does not appear to be a factor in creating the music or mastering the album in Leonard’s Atlanta-based SING Mastering studio.
“For mastering, that doesn’t really affect what I do,” Leonard said. “Because I’m basically dealing with the overall sound of the music, not necessarily the lyrical message of it at all.”
Bad Bunny has said he doesn’t care about the language barrier, even though fans who don’t speak Spanish may miss the best part of his songs. But he adds that even Latinos miss the nuance of some of his lyrics because he sings in Puerto Rican slang.
Leonard’s biggest cheerleader is the CEO of Auburn Manufacturing — his mom, Kathie Leonard — who follows his career very closely.
“I knew that Colin had mastered all of Bad Bunny’s albums (that’s seven, I believe), so that in and of itself is a tribute,” she wrote in an email Monday. “But to win a Grammy for this special album on the heels of Beyoncé’s Grammy this year is over the top.”
Should Bad Bunny win the 2026 Grammy for Album of the Year, it will put Leonard in a unique position — winning two consecutive Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, something he thinks could happen. “He has a really good chance, I think, of winning that,” Leonard predicted.
“Colin has worked hard for many years perfecting his skills and building his business from the ground up, so he’s very deserving of both of these awards,” Kathie Leonard added. “I’m sure there will be many more in his future. So who’s next you, ask? Whoever’s the best artist out there next year, I hope!”
Colin Leonard said that could be Giveon, who is nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Album that he master engineered, or Summer Walker, another R&B artist Leonard has worked with.
